Ripple’s RippleNet Reaches Its 200th Institutional Customer

Ripple’s RippleNet Reaches Its 200th Institutional Customer

Ripple, creators of XRP, are touting their ecosystem’s latest milestone as the number of RippleNet customers has now reached 200. The payments network is billed as a way to decrease costs and transaction times in cross-border payments. Can the traction continue?

Also read: Ahead of Ethereum Constantinople Update, Community Eyes ProgPoW

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With Newest Onboardings, RippleNet Hits 200th Customer

On Jan. 8th, Ripple announced its RippleNet payments network had achieved its 200th customer.

Last year some notable critics said financial institutions would never use a digital asset in their payment flows. As I said then, if it offers their customers a better experience at a lower cost, they will – and they are! https://t.co/ZX3RDotmhQ

— Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) January 8, 2019

The declaration comes after the network gained around 100 clients last year, per Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, and after doubts over the system’s adoption were repeatedly raised in 2018.

Of course, 200 clients does not a smashing success make, but the new milestone suggests Ripple is starting to gain modest traction in piquing the interest of financial institutions willing to trial XRP and RippleNet.

It remains to be seen whether such interest can endure beyond the short-term, but for their part, the Ripple team thinks RippleNet’s cost-efficiency and time-efficiency benefits can help the network become a big player in cross-border payments.

“Using XRP for liquidity when sending a cross-border payment helps financial institutions avoid the hassle of pre-funding accounts in destination currencies,” Ripple commented.

“It allows them to make faster, lower cost payments than they can through the traditional correspondent banking system.”

The latest onboarders that helped bring the payments network over the 200th-client milestone included Ahli Bank of Kuwait, BFC Bahrain, and Euro Exim Bank, as well as fintech plays like ConnectPay and SendFriend.

“Through our partnership, we are bringing our customers a next-generation, blockchain payment solution that leverages XRP to address many of the efficiency and equity problems with existing remittances,” SendFriend founder David Lighton said on the news.

Crypto a ‘Fairtyale Story’? ECB Councilor Says So

While Ripple may be hitting its stride, one European Central Bank (ECB) councilor is saying the entire cryptoeconomy is doomed.

That’s per Ardo Hansson, an ECB council member and Bank of Estonia governor, who in new remarks said the cryptoverse’s bubble is in the midst of a collapse.

“The bubble has already started to collapse and maybe we should just see how far this collapse goes and what is left when we’ve reached a new kind of equilibrium,” Hansson said.

“I think we will come back a few years from now and say how could we ever have gotten into this situation where we believed this kind of a fairy-tale story.”

Yet there are many in the cryptoeconomy who would retort that crypto is no fairy tale and that there are projects in the space providing real solutions in the here and now.

Reasonable people can debate that point, but it’s safe to say Ripple would count itself in the “real solutions” camp. Only time will tell for now whether Hansson’s vision or Garlinghouse’s vision will be closer to the future’s reality where crypto and blockchain are concerned.

What’s your take? Does RippleNet have a real future in the world of fintech, or is it nearing its peak? Let us know in the comments below. 

Images via Pixabay